Well, Halloween is now over so I guess it is time to start thinking about Christmas, right?

If we left it up to the retailers, the holiday season would skip from Valentine’s Day to Easter to the Fourth of July to Halloween to Christmas and the cycle would start all over again. It seems that days such as Thanksgiving, Veterans Day and Columbus Day do not rate high enough on the consumer scale to exist in the retail world.

When is the last time you saw stores stocking up on turkey and pilgrim stuffed animals or puzzles and sweaters depicting the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria? Should children get to dress up as military personnel for Veterans Day and go house to house asking for candy?

Often we get so caught up in the idea of certain holidays that we skip over others without a second thought. I personally am a big fan of Thanksgiving. It is an entire day where you can overeat and not have anyone criticize you for it. It is a holiday associated with delicious food and spending time with family members. Sure there is usually the requisite family squabble and someone will “mess up” one of the traditional food groups causing years of chastising from other family members (for example, over-cooking the green beans until they become something more closely resembling green mush than the long skinny beans they began as). But there are few holidays that could serve in its stead for bringing people together. Whether it is gathered around the dining room table to around the big screen television, you are spending time with people you care about.

Veterans Day is another holiday that is often overlooked because it does not come with the flashy bells and whistles of some of the bigger holidays. However, if it were not for the men and women this day was designed to honor, we may not be able to celebrate the more “exciting” holidays. Sure, many towns have a Veterans Day parade and some organizations even offer special treatment for the day to those who have served. However, too many people see it as just another day.

These are not the only holidays that are overlooked year after year as stores look to that next big sale. But just once, I’d like to get a Happy Columbus Day card or be able to wish someone a Happy Arbor Day and not have them look at me like I have three heads. Let’s give those other holidays some love every once in a while and not let the stores dictate which holidays we deem as important.

Morgan Wall is a staff reporter at The Mount Airy News. She can be reached at mwall@mtairynews.com or 719-1929.